So school is about to start – and you might be thinking of getting things in order. September is always the time of year we get to evaluate where we’ve been so far this year and how we want to end our year. After the summer of letting some areas of your life get off track you may want to start paying attention again. You might want to start measuring things again. How about how you spend your time, energy and focus?
I have had several of my clients reviewing just that. What are your priorities? Is it work, meetings or volunteering more than you’d really like to? Don’t get me wrong making contributions to community or organizations you belong to is a wonderful thing to do. But you need to ask yourself – is the time you are spending in these areas eroding or enhancing the balance in what you want to have in your life? Do you go to meetings rather than taking time for fitness, making healthy meals or closing your eyes for 10-20 minutes when you come home from work? If you aren’t doing any of these latter things than you must learn to take things off your plate. Stop saying yes to everything and start saying yes to you 1st.
I have seen so many struggle with their health and weight simply because they are doing way too much. So that’s why I am recommending a way to look at important categories in your life by creating a Pie Chart – a visible representation of where you spend most of your time and effort on a daily basis. Many are surprised, even shocked to discover that they may only eke out 2-5% for themselves. Could that be your story, too?
Here are 3 Simple Tips on Creating Your Pie Chart To Reflect What You Truly Want:
Tip #1 Get out of vagueness – Being vague about important things in your life can be a killer. There’s no clarity or sense of direction living this way. If you do, you most likely don’t have much of an idea as to where you are at all. This strategy (or lack of) can be compared to not writing down what you eat when you want to lose weight or keep your weight in check. You are not conscious of what is really happening. In order to become more aware and make necessary changes you must have some form of measurement. Remember you can’t change what you don’t measure. What do you spend your time, focus and energy on during your day?
Tip #2 Making choices – After you’ve identified what’s in your Pie Chart – it’s time to determine where you’d like to spend more time and focus and where you’d like to spend less. Perhaps you don’t want to be in work mode 24/7. Or how about reducing some of your PTA activities.
Again, only if these activities are cutting into some of your own self caring personal time do you want to make different choices – modify a little. If you are not sleeping well, eating on the run (most of the time) or becoming more irritable with loved ones it’s time to make some changes re-vamp your Pie Chart.
Tip #3 Have Fun – Yes, even determining what is important can be a fun, and certainly revealing assignment. You can have fun creating a new Pie Chart for Your Life. Suspend reality for a moment and think what could be possible in your future. Could you carve some time for date night with your spouse more often, have a massage 2x/mo or go to the theater to see a play every 3 months or so.
Plan for a trip to a place you’ve always wanted to go to. Whatever you choose know that it will take some time to integrate less of the “have-to’s” and more of the “want to’s” into your life. Have fun with this process.
